As 49ers candidates fled, Kyle Shanahan won big

Not long ago, the interest of Kyle Shanahan in the head-coaching job in San Francisco was lukewarm at best. It has heated up considerably this week.

Shanahan’s spike in interest in the job resulted from the lack of interest that multiple others had, either in coaching the team or in taking the G.M. job.

It began with Chiefs director of player personnel Chris Ballard. Regarded as the team’s first, second, and third choice for the job, Ballard wasn’t interested. He asked the team to deny the request for permission to interview him for the job, apparently in order to avoid the impression that he generally isn’t interested in an opportunity for advancement.

Next came Patriots director of player personnel Nick Caserio, who didn’t want the job, either. Other candidates for the G.M. job either declined an invitation to interview or withdrew after interviewing.

The decision of Ballard and Caserio to pass on the job apparently contributed to the shift in agenda from hiring a G.M. first to hiring a coach and G.M. who will work together well. As potential members of a tag team began to bow out (starting most prominently with Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels), that plan changed as well. When Seahawks offensive line coach Tom Cable withdrew, it left Shanahan as the only candidate.

Shanahan will benefit from that situation, significantly. He’s expected to be the highest-paid first time head coach in league history, and he’s expected to have final say over the roster and the draft. Next, he’ll be directly involved in the General Manager, which makes Shanahan the clear-cut captain of the S.S. 49er.

So how did it get to this point? Despite the widespread popular belief that the 49ers are currently the most dysfunctional team in football, the thinking in league circles is that, with some tweaks, the G.M. and coaching jobs could be desirable. The impediment to attracting their preferred candidates isn’t owner Jed York; apparently, it’s Chief Strategy Officer and EVP of Football Operations Paraag Marathe.

Marathe is, as a practical matter, the Russ Brandon of the 49ers. The only difference is that the 49ers make no secret of Marathe’s influence over the football operations.

From his online bio: “On the team side, Marathe reports directly to 49ers CEO Jed York and has a significant role in major strategic decisions for the club as Chief Strategy Officer. He also continues in his long-respected role as the team’s chief contract negotiator and salary cap architect, while overseeing the team’s football analytics department.”

Put simply, Marathe has influence, along with the ear of ownership. He’s been there for 16 years, and he has transcended the bubble of accountability in which coaches and General Managers reside. And that’s precisely the kind of dynamic coaches and General Managers try to avoid.

Shanahan is embracing it because, as his final package will demonstrate, he leveraged the team’s desperation to his full advantage. Moving forward, however, it’s an elephant in the room that may be serving as an oversized anchor.

As a Raiders fan, I can remember the years of ownership ruining any hope you had of winning. I hate this for anyone. It saps the fun out of rooting for a team. Sorry, 9ers fans. You deserve better than this.

What on earth was said during that interview to make Tom Cable withdraw?

I guess the good news for Kyle is that this is a win/no lose situation. 1) he wins if he somehow turns this around 2) he doesn’t lose if he doesn’t turn it around as most will give him a pass for failing in this dumpster fire

I think the 49ers’ number one guy has been Kyle Shanahan all along, and as the others have come to realize that, they’re being allowed to bow out gracefully. As far as Paarag is concerned, he’s not a problem at all. The 49ers can win multiple super bowls with him in the office. They just need the right personnel guy and everyone will look very smart in S.F.

“Chief Strategy Officer” sounds like Marathe is in the Marketing Department. And having a marketing person be essentially in charge of your business… well, it’s no wonder the Niners are in the shape they are in.

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It’s apparent that Shanahan’s agent did an outstanding job of delivering his client to the 49ers. Who’s his agent? Why none other than Marvin Demoff, the father of Rams COO Kevin Demoff. He also represents Jeff Fisher and media shill, Peter King.
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Tom cable was never seriously considered. Lmao at him withdrawing consideration for headcoach. He’s a joke, a mental headcase and a danger to teammates and coaches. He doesn’t deserve to be a coach at any level. He’s an embarrassment. Kyle on the other hand is an excellent coach and a tremendous upgrade for coach of the niners. Now all we need is for krapernick to get cut and draft a qb with our first pick then draft players to help our weak defense. Our entire defense needs a makeover.

I must be crazy. If this guy has such influence, why is this site not giving him as much crap as it gives Russ Brandon (and Brandon deserves it)…have you paid any attention at all to this team the past 3 years?
Regardless of the transparency of his functionality, how is this guy. It responsible in part for what that team is going through?

Same with Brandon, they get to influence the owner but because they are not on the football side of operations, there is no accountability for them.

And what is the deal with hiring the coach before the GM? Now the FM is nothing more than a puppet to be the face of the franchise taking the hits but actually being at fault.

If Caserio says yes..then Josh McDaniels says yes. McDaniels
might have said yes if Riddick is GM. When you have 80 million in dead money for COACHES and GM it is not appealing to potential
candidates. Perhaps a move like Jacksonville and Coughlin would help.

There’s only 32 of these jobs in the NFL and there are no guarantees you’ll get another opportunity if you pass one up. Kyle Shanahan is playing this perfectly. As someone said earlier, he in a no lose situation. Worst thing that happens is he’s fired in a couple of years and he goes back to being an OC after padding his bank account.

A lot of teams have similar make-up. Most have team presidents or EVP of football operations that participate in contract negotiation and other things. Tom Coughlin just took that same job with Jacksonsville and is actually hiring coaches for Doug Marrone. It happens quite a bit. Howie Roseman in Philadelphia is essentially a lawyer who reports to the owner while masquerading as team president and GM.

Tom Cable withdrew because he and the two Seahawk GM candidates got wind that they were using Cable as leverage against Shanahan. McVay was given thebphone numbers, PUBLICLY, mind you, both to scare the Rams into hiring him (and not Shanahan), and also as leverage against Shanahan.

Shanahaj is NOT the “last” choice. He was from day 1 no further down the line than second, and everything the 49ers have done this off season has been to get either him or McDaniels.

dtroxallday says:
Jan 18, 2017 1:52 PM
Say it isn’t so! According to all the know-nothings posting on the other stories regarding SFs coaching search, he should stay as far away from SF as possible.
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All jokes aside, good move for Kyle. I will bet money he can jump start Kapp’s career. Caveat, don’t let daddy interere. He was a good coach for Denver, terrible GM. He also is a control freak that has deep roots with the 49ers. Be careful Kyle and good luck!

Want to know why the York Niners have been a pathetic joke for the better part of the last 15 years? They have idiots like Parage Marathe, a guy with ZERO sports let alone football background actually making football decisions and getting say over the roster. With York, Paraag and Al Guido you have three guys with no football experience trying to run a football team. Sorry, but this is a formula set up to fail no matter who the coach is. The Niners will be terrible for many years to come

isleptwithoj: So now a third coach is the one who’s going to revive Krapperstink’s sinking career? hell maybe by the time he’s 40 we’ll know if he can play or not. Its long since been time to get rid of that vile locker room cancer. There’s a reason no other teams want him

Sounds like to me that York will be quiet (for about a couple years, max) before his ego kicks in again and fires Kyle , assuming Kyle does a good job. But Kyle should have a nice rich bank account by then.

As for being overwhelmed, all he needs to do is call dad. That would be the one person he knows he can trust and who would have his back the whole time .

The 49ers are going to turn it around. This is a great move getting Shanahan. His dad has a ton of experience with several very successful organizations (49ers, Raiders, Broncos) and knows how important it is to have the right people in the front office. I can guarantee you that the candidates who have “fled”, are not the guys Mike Shanahan wanted. Mike knows that Kyle can be very picky with where he wants to coach, and he wouldn’t be directing him to S.F. if he didn’t think it was going to work. Everyone wants to beat up on Paarag Marathe, but he doesn’t have anything to do with winning and losing. He’s a cap guy, and he’s actually very good.

So by reading this I’m lead to believe Kyle Shanahan (hottest, or 2nd hottest HC candidate this year & next year) and Eliot Wolf (one of the hottest, most coveted young GM candidate in the league) is all the poor, dysfunctional 49ers have left to work with? OK!

Jed did a bang-up job. I know you haters would have loved Chip Kelly & Tom Gamble, sorry but we’re in it to win it. Nice work Jed & Paraag.

Shanahan will bring his Dad in as a “Consultant” to help run the team. Mike will probably do most of the personnel work so Kyle can focus on HC duties. That being said, we all know that unless they find a Franchise QB, they ain’t winning more than 5 games a season.

Baalke’s gone. Hopefully that’ll help. I get that he (Shanahan) still has to deal with York. But at least we’ve gotten past the GM rung of the ladder. Maybe he’s had some sort of epiphany by now. (I could barely type that with a straight face)

They’ve got nowhere to go but up. And if he does happen to even make them respectable again, he’d definitely score some brownie points. Make ’em good/great again, he’d practically be worshiped by SF fans, rightfully so.

Talking about setting up a guy or failure; Kyle Shanahan doesn’t have a chance to succeed here.
This York kid is simply making a bad situation worse. Can you imagine a worse situation than a non football guy choosing another non football guy to run the entire football operation? What an embarrassment!

“I think the 49ers’ number one guy has been Kyle Shanahan all along, and as the others have come to realize that, they’re being allowed to bow out gracefully. As far as Paarag is concerned, he’s not a problem at all. The 49ers can win multiple super bowls with him in the office. They just need the right personnel guy and everyone will look very smart in S.F.”
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Oh look, Jed Dork got a PFT account. Cute.

My understanding is that Shanahan was one of the very top-choices from the beginning. And that came from the rather worthless and York-hating SF beat writers.

As for Marthe, I know most of you missed it, but he was removed from the Team President role about a year-and-a-half ago. He mostly manages an investment partnership (he’s the Managing General Partner) for the Yorks while dealing with cap and contracts.